My husband likes to joke about the last few months of the year and “Hallo-Thanks-Mas” – where it seems the stores rush the holidays with Christmas items being out before Halloween. Truly it seems you end one holiday and begin preparing for the next.
That being said, with Thanksgiving leftovers being almost gone, the kids and I have begun to prepare for Christmas.
I’ve learned that 2 year olds do not deal well with change; the key is to go slowly. And things had to change, because there was no room for the Christmas tree unless we rearranged some toys in the living room. The biggest challenge was the fact that Monkey’s cars and trucks had been living in the corner where the tree goes. And NOBODY messes with his vehicles.
For several days I talked about how we were going to have to move his cars and trucks to make room for the tree. His response? He’d point to the kitchen and tell me to put the tree there. Fearing a huge upset, I opted not to move any toys out of the room (like I had originally hoped). Instead I moved the storage units we have toys in to the space right behind the front door.
This freed up some space between the play kitchen and tool bench, just 6 or so feet from where the vehicles usually reside. Even so, the two year old was NOT a happy camper when I started moving his stuff. Thankfully, when I suggested he might like to help me, he started picking up his trucks ever so carefully for the move.
At least we had a space now for the tree… 
Knowing I better fill it before the kids did, we got right to work! With two little helpers handing the husband and I branches (color coded, so it was like a scavenger hunt for them), we had the tree up in no time! 
I’m leaving the tree as is for a day before we decorate so the toddler can get used to it. (And, of course, when we do decorate it, only the ornaments in the toddler-friendly category will go at the bottom.)
Have you gotten any holiday prep. done yet?
Lea says
I have not one thing done yet. It is really hard to get in Xmas mode down here in Florida (we’ll at least for me). I just can’t get used to lit up palm trees – no cold – no snow on Christmas eve … I feel like going to Lego Land instead of even going through the decorating. Meanwhile, you have just made me think … Our baby just took his first 3 steps today. I am going to have to put a shield around our Christmas tree 🙁
admin says
Oh, warm weather does make it hard to get into the holiday spirit!
Congrats on the new walker! How exciting! Definitely make sure those ornaments at the bottom are baby friendly! 🙂
Heather @ Life, gluten free says
That’s a big beautiful tree! We have put up decorations already… we start decorating around thanksgiving so we can enjoy the decorations for a while, otherwise the time flies by and it’s already time to put away the decorations. Today I was working on our advent calendar activity cards. It is a fun season!
ps…. I blog hopped from the frugal family fun blog and thought I’d say hi 🙂
Janet says
Just googling some things and came across this. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but if your son is very fearful of change and lines things up regularly that is a sign of Autism if it goes along with other symptoms. It could be just his personality though. Just a thought.
admin says
Thank you for your concern – I know how hard it is to get Autism diagnosed. I would have to say his not liking change has to do with his being 2 right now… And since Christmas the cars haven’t had time to be lined up – they’re driving all over the place! 🙂